In recent years, the ever-increasing use of plastic materials has clearly proliferated in packaging concepts. This has occurred for many reasons including the fact that plastic materials have been relatively inexpensive, can be easily formed by injection molding, thermoforming, and other suitable methods into virtually any shape, accommodate safe and sterilized shipment of products from the manufacturer to the retailer and ultimately to the consumer, and are readily accepted as disposable by the consumer after use. While such plastic materials are widely recognized as highly desirable, those skilled in the art have only begun to appreciate their versatility.
In particular, despite utilization of plastic materials in modern packaging, it has remained to provide an entirely satisfactory multi-unit package that is formed of a plurality of self-contained package units. Such a package would be extremely useful not only to the consumer but also to the vendors of a multitude of products that are usually used in unit doses such as pharmaceuticals or in ordinary servings such as dairy and non-dairy creamers, jellies and other food products. Still further, a multi-unit package would be compact and attractive for the consumer to maintain in the home.
With a package of this type, a pharmacist could dispense pharmaceuticals to be taken by elderly persons in a strict regimen. The self-contained package units could then each contain either a single pharmaceutical or, if desired, multiple pharmaceuticals to be taken together at a given time after which another self-contained package unit could be separated from the multi-unit package at the next given time for taking such pharmaceuticals. In this manner, it would be possible to eliminate a major source of confusion in elderly persons.
While the benefit of such a package is manifest in the field of pharmaceuticals, it could apply to any person required to take individual units of medicine over a period of time. The one-by-one removal of the self-contained package units from the overall multi-unit package would give the person an indication of the stage of completion of the pharmaceutical regimen by merely glancing at the multi-unit package to determine the approximate number of self-contained package units remaining to be taken. Moreover, due to the attractiveness of the multi-unit package, the pharmaceuticals could be left in a prominent position in the kitchen or bathroom as a ready reminder to take the pharmaceuticals as prescribed.
In other fields, a multi-unit package would be no less desirable. Such a package could, for instance, be utilized to make available dairy and non-dairy creamers, jelly and the like either in restaurants or in the home. In the latter case, the quantity of the food product could be accurately controlled for dieting persons.
Once again, the multi-unit package would be sufficiently attractive to be prominently displayed in the home or restaurant. This, again, would lead to the overall desirability of such a packaging concept which has heretofore not been available to the consuming public. Additionally, a multi-unit package is certainly capable of utilization in numerous applications that have not been mentioned.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the above-stated problems and accomplishing the stated objects by providing a unique package and method of packaging.